


An Orion Roman Holiday

by bookdragon01



Category: Star Trek: 2009
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-21
Updated: 2011-10-21
Packaged: 2017-10-24 20:17:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/267456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookdragon01/pseuds/bookdragon01
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Summary</b>: Cadet Gaila decides to finally go back home for a visit. What could go wrong? According to Starfleet Intel, a lot. So Capt. Pike assigns his Security Chief to go with her. What could go wrong indeed... Giotto & Gaila</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Acknowledgment: Special thanks to Artemiis Boz who beta'd this for me. She has such a good sense of Gaila's voice - go read her fics.
> 
> Disclaimer: The only bits of Star Trek I own are videos, cos-play stuff and little action figures...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary** : Cadet Gaila decides to finally go back home for a visit. What could go wrong? According to Starfleet Intel, a lot. So Capt. Pike assigns his Security Chief to go with her. What could go wrong indeed... Giotto & Gaila

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Acknowledgment:** Special thanks to **Artemiis Boz** who beta'd this for me. She has such a good sense of Gaila's voice - go read her fics.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** The only bits of Star Trek I own are videos, cos-play stuff and little action figures...
> 
> * * *

Capt. Pike folded his hands and looked at the man across the desk from him. His friend wasn't prone to showing a lot in his expression, but Chris had known him long enough to see that he wasn't exactly thrilled by the prospect of this assignment. "Comments, Commander?"

Giotto lifted his eyebrows. "You want me to babysit an Orion?"

The tone was just this side of 'You can't be serious'. Pike frowned. "Not babysit, Sam – she's an adult. I want you to keep an eye on her."

Sam's eyebrows moved marginally higher.

Chris's mouth twisted. "You know what I mean."

"Do I?" Giotto's expression was impassive, but Chris could hear the smirk. It was what he got for asking this of someone who'd spent too much time as his wingman back when they were both young lieutenants.

"Yes," he insisted flatly, "you do."

"I think the situation requires clarification. Sir." Little crinkles at the corners of Giotto's eyes were the only indication that somewhere deep inside he was laughing his ass off.

Chris tightened his lips against a smile. Every now and then the Sam he'd known before Maria's death made an appearance. However he'd ended with 'Sir' and that meant that he was either going to get straight answers, find a regulation way around the assignment, or force someone to issue direct orders. Pike knew the latter was the worst possible option, since his Security Chief was likely to pay him back by following them to the letter in most deviously annoying way possible.

"Look, I need someone I can trust to accompany her."

"There are plenty of people you could trust." That Chris himself wasn't among them was left unspoken. Very _loudly_ unspoken.

"It's not like you're going to take leave." Pike held a hand up to forestall protest and looked his old friend in the eye. "A few days at home with everyone asking about how you're holding up and you'll be back stalking the halls of the ship and driving the work crews crazy. We both know it."

Giotto crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. "So I'm not babysitting her; she's babysitting me?"

"If you prefer to think of it that way." Chris smirked. "Personally, I call it a win-win situation."

"You would."

"Look, I'm not saying you're going to enjoy this, but she's a top-ranked Cadet. She's nothing like the women you used to have to pull off of me."

Sam snorted. "You mean that I used to have to pull you off of."

"It's not Federation space," he continued, hoping a slight blush would be mistaken for embarrassment over those memories, "and she's a brilliant enough programmer to be on some high level projects even as cadet. I'd rather send you with her now than risk having to ask you to put together a plan to retrieve her later."

Giotto scowled, but nodded. "Alright, but I swear by whatever deity you still believe in that if this turns out to be as bad as I expect, I will make your life hell when I get back. And as down payment on that, you get to explain to the family why I won't be home for leave."

Chris's eyes crinkled as he smiled back at his friend.

"Deal."

.

* * *

.

Gaila looked around the terminal, hoping the commander would be able to find her. It wasn't that she thought all humans looked alike, but medium-tall men with a mix of dark and gray hair where hardly in short supply here.

When Capt. Pike's yeoman had described Giotto as having 'olive skin', Gaila had briefly rejoiced, thinking that it meant he was part Orion. However the man in the ID picture had beige/tan skin just a little darker than the captain's, so 'olive' made no sense whatsoever (the only non-green olives Gaila had ever seen were closer to the color of her roommate's skin). Now 'salt-and-pepper' hair she could understand, but if the food references were meant to imply that there was something edible about the commander, Colt should have chosen wheat bread or graham crackers to describe his skin.

...Mmm, yummy… Gaila looked at the picture again. Dark eyes, strong jawline - not as cute as Pike, but not bad either...

"Cadet Gaila?"

Her head whipped around, bringing her face to face with the man in the picture. She mentally added 'moves really quietly' to the list of characteristics. Good to know. "Yes sir." She covered with a bright smile. "Pleased to meet you, Cmdr. Giotto."

"And you." He nodded curtly and turned, pointing. "Our ship's this way."

Her smile faded in shock. Human men _always_ smiled back. Always. Even the ones who were gay. Even the ones with wives (even when those wives were standing right next to them scowling). Pike had said that his friend was all business but this was ridiculous! She barely remembered to grab her bag before hurrying after him.

Gaila chewed on the problem as she followed. In the interest of knowing a little about who she'd be traveling with, she'd taken a peek at his personnel file (it wasn't technically hacking - anyone in the personnel office could look at it and she'd told the nice lieutenant, who had _definitely_ smiled back at her, that she'd meet him at his office so he could take her to dinner). The pertinent information in Giotto's file indicated that he was (a) heterosexual and (b) single. He'd lead an interspecies combat unit _and_ he was Pike's friend, so xenophobia was out. How could he possibly not smile back?

By the time they entered the small ship, she was worked up enough to ask. "Is there something wrong, Commander?"

He tossed his bag into storage and immediately began the preflight checks. "Not that I'm aware of, Cadet."

His eyes never left the helm display. Gaila's hand twisted the strap of her satchel. She was starting to feel insulted. "It's just -"

"Relax." Giotto looked up and pointed out the forward window. "You see that man in coveralls? He's not just a mechanic. He checked this ship stem to stern as soon as she came in and he's been keeping an eye out to make sure that no one else touched her until we got here."

 _Ozdat!_ \- he thought she was worried that something was wrong with the ship. ...Wait, he had obviously been worried that someone might do something to the ship.

Now a corner of commander's mouth turned upward. "Just a precaution. Have a seat," he indicated the co-pilot's chair, "and help me finish the flight checks. There's an open launch window in twelve minutes. If we're quick, we should be able to take it."

"Aye sir." Gaila sat and activated her read-outs, feeling relieved. Even though she hadn't taken quals and wasn't technically qualified to co-pilot, Mr. All-Business had just waved regulations to let her take the position. Plus, that had _almost_ been a smile.

Ha! He did like her. Gaila smiled to herself. They had a long way to go before reaching Orion space. Plenty of time to work on the smiling thing.

.

* * *

.

Giotto glanced at the chronometer. Only 3 hours into the flight and he was already wishing that he'd packed a bottle of something considerably stronger than Dr. Puri's supplements. Another 34 hours trapped with a bubbly, talkative extrovert and he was going to stun himself with his own phaser.

It hadn't taken much to see that Gaila was agitated when she'd come aboard, and recognizing that she had reason to be nervous about this journey, particularly when her traveling companion was a total stranger, Giotto had initially tried to be tolerant of her attempts to make conversation. He was not what might be called a 'people person' and particularly disliked personal questions, but he had tried to respond politely to her queries (Yes, he had known Chris Pike a long time. Yes, they'd met during the Border Wars. No, he didn't like to talk about it. Yes, it _was_ a long time ago - he _still_ didn't like to talk about it).

To be polite and to shift the conversation to a different topic, he'd asked Gaila about her history and she'd told him about stowing away on her cousin's ship to get off Orion and make a life on her own terms in the Federation. That part had been moderately pleasant. Sam was not much for engaging in conversation, but he was very good at listening. While he could have done without some of the more detailed descriptions of what she'd discovered about human sexual proclivities, he'd been in Starfleet for close to three decades so very little shocked him. However at some point she'd decided to try to draw him out again. This time, unfortunately, by making 'small talk'. It was not, to put it mildly, Sam's favorite form of conversation.

"...so I've been trying to learn about earth cultures. There are so many different ethnic groups - at least ten times more than on Orion - but let me guess," she grinned at him. "'Giotto' is French, right?"

"Italian."

"Italian..." Her brows furrowed momentarily and then she brightened. " Ooh, like pizza and lasagna!"

Giotto resisted an urge to roll his eyes. "Among other things."

"Oh I know. There's art and opera. It seems like such a _sensual_ culture." She put her elbows on the console, rested her chin in both palms and beamed at him. "Tell me about Italy."

The worst part was that if she hadn't been getting on his last nerve for close to an hour now, she'd look appealing like that. "Sorry, I've never spent more than a few days there."

Her eager expression switched to puzzled. "I don't understand."

"I grew up in an ethnically Italian neighborhood in North America," he explained. "I toured a couple Italian cities once when I had some time after a meeting at the Hague, but that was almost twenty years ago."

Gaila deflated a little, allowing a whole two beats of actual silence. Then she perked up, smiling again. "Do you have a girlfriend, Commander?"

Huh? Not only had that been completely out of left field, but his wife had been killed in action less than a year ago and that question could too easily lead to topics that were simply _not_ open for discussion.

"I don't discuss my personal life, Cadet." He gave her an look that should have been as easy to read as an actual 'No Trespassing' sign.

Her lips quirked to a sly smile. "Does that mean yes or no?"

"It means I don't share that information with people who have no need to know."

A red eyebrow arched playfully. "What if I needed to know?"

Good grief, this kid was not trying to flirt with him. "Trust me, you don't."

"Are you sure?" She leaned in, smile widening just a little.

"Yes." Sam quickly looked away, thinking hard about how he would be sending Chris a 20-page battle readiness report to be filled out _in triplicate_.

A sad little huff came from Gaila's direction. "Men always like me, Commander. Why don't you?"

Giotto suppressed a sigh. "I don't _dislike_ you, Cadet. I'm just not open to you making that sort of suggestion, so -"

"That's so strange," she interrupted.

He felt his eyebrows climb.

"I mean," she continued in rush of words, "we're off duty and I'm not in your line of command anyway and after Capt. Pike told me who was going to be coming with me I overheard a couple people outside the office saying that they wouldn't be too jealous because you _really_ needed to get laid."

Sam looked upward, struggling between conflicting impulses to either laugh out loud or beat his head against the helm. Reminding himself that she'd only been at the Academy a short time and was relatively new to human culture in general, he looked back at her with his best approximation of a patient expression. "Cadet, as you continue in Starfleet, you will find that that is an opinion subordinates frequently hold when it comes to COs who expect a lot from them. Please do not take it to mean that you personally are under any obligation to act on their opinions."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _AN: That memories involving Gaila might give Pike reason to blush about is in_ 'Adventures in Recruiting'.
> 
>  _I did a short piece on Gaila and Giotto meeting a few years after this because Gaila just jumped in and took over the tale I'd meant to write. She seems to want more fics too because the characters keep feeding me backstory. So here it is, with some help from my wonderful beta._
> 
>  _Like it? Hate it? Please r &r_


	2. Chapter 2

Gaila almost laughed. Oh dear Goddess, in his own strange human way Giotto was trying to be honorable by staying all distant and reserved so she wouldn't feel like she was expected to sleep with him. And he was so _sincere_ about it. It was adorable.

"It's not like that, Commander," she smiled encouragingly. "I _like_ sex."

His eyes closed a beat too long to be a blink. "Most people do - that doesn't mean it's always a good idea."

Silly humans – it was _always_ a good idea.

"But it would be," she countered. "Especially on this trip. People at home would never understand my taking pheromone suppressants, so I have to be off them. I took my last one yesterday."

Giotto turned and stared out the forward viewscreen, mouth set in a thin line. For just a second he almost looked like he was going to hit something. Then he released a slow breath and nodded. "It's alright. I've been exposed before."

That determined self-control - she'd liked that about Pike too, although he'd been a lot easier to persuade. "But we're going to be together for days and once we arrive, there'll be all my sisters." It was symptom of suppressants already wearing off that she felt a little flash at the thought of sharing before she'd established a primary claim. "They know I'm bringing a human home with me and they're going to be really curious."

Another deliberate breath. "I'll answer their questions as best I can."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. I've spent time in Orion space before." He stood and straightened with a small stretch. "Right now, I think I should spend some time sleeping - _just_ sleeping. I'll relieve you in six hours."

 _I could relieve you now if you'd let me_. She didn't say it. There was a slight scent of arousal/frustration, but it would take more subtle methods to bag this one.

...Bag? Yeah, the suppressants were definitely wearing off and she hadn't had to deal with the hormonal impulses that sometimes accompanied pheromone production for over year now. Gaila composed herself. "Aye, sir. I'll wake you in six."

He turned at the entrance to the rear compartment. "Just call my name from the door. In a strange place I sometimes ...wake violently."

Gaila nodded understanding and watched the door thoughtfully after he'd gone in. She might be hormonal, but she certainly wasn't stupid. A 'fleet Security Commander who'd spent enough time in Orion space to think he was prepared to resist a whole group of sisters and who had the sort of conditioning to wake ready to fight - Pike hadn't sent along a friend who needed an opportunity to loosen up a little; he'd sent someone with experience, probably Intel experience, in dealing with the Syndicate.

The question was: why?

.

* * *

.

Once in the rear cabin, Giotto wiped a hand over his face. This assignment was going to be hell, and in no small part because he'd been given very specific orders not to let anyone, particularly Gaila, know that he actually was on assignment.

In other words, he was screwed (and not in the good way that Gaila had been suggesting). However, giving in was not an option. While Sam had no moral objections to the concept of recreational sex, any such encounter with this Cadet would be a bad idea on more levels than he cared to even contemplate. The most relevant at this point being that if he allowed that sort of exposure to one Orion's pheromones, even the supplements from Dr. Puri would do him no good whatsoever in resisting the influence of other Orion women, especially those with Syndicate training.

He sat down heavily on the bed and activated his comm.

After a moment Capt. Pike's voice flickered into the room. "You're checking in early. How's it going?"

"I'm going to kill you, Chris," he replied matter-of-factly. "In the slowest, most painful method I can possibly devise and no jury in universe will convict me."

"That well huh?"

"She's gone off her pheromone suppressants and just to make things _really_ interesting, she propositioned me."

"I'm sorry, I had no idea she'd stop the suppressants so soon. But are you sure about the proposition? I mean, given the situation, wishful thinking-"

"She was _not_ subtle," Giotto growled. "And apparently she told her sisters that she'd be bringing a human home for their entertainment."

There was something suspiciously like a muffled snicker on the other end. "You know, Sam, a lot of -"

"Chris," he interrupted sharply, "if the next words I hear have anything to do with anyone envying me, I _swear to God_ I will turn this ship around and hunt you down right now."

"Swear to 'God'?" Chris's voice still sounded dangerously close to amused. "When did you start believing again?"

"I've decided there's evidence for the existence of wrathful deity," Sam said evenly. "And you'd do well to remember that _if_ He exists, I was made in His image."

"I'm really sorry, Sam. I know this isn't going to be easy."

" _Not easy?_ Chris, it's going to take every single trick I ever learned in SI to get through this and then some. I'm stuck in close quarters with an oversexed Orion who's giving off pheromones before that stuff Dr. Puri gave me can even begin to take effect _and_ she seems a bit put out about being rejected."

"Well, she's," Chris coughed, as though swallowing a laugh, "probably not used to men playing hard to get."

"Playing hard to get?" Sam repeated through clenched teeth. "I have to stick close to her for the next _four days_. If this turns into some kind of game for her..." It didn't bear thinking about. Orions weren't known just for sex appeal. Most were avid and highly competitive gamers and none of them were good about losing.

"Relax, Sam..."

"Relax? I'm between a rock and hard place here – and don't you _dare_ turn that into an innuendo," Giotto warned. "I can't avoid her. I can't touch her and I tell her _why_ I can't touch her. If I keep rejecting her, she might get too hacked off to let me stick close enough to protect her once we're there, but if I give in to her pheromones, I won't stand a chance in hell against an experienced Syndicate agent's."

"I know, and that's why we set up the daily check-ins," Pike acknowledged in his 'reassuring Captain' voice. "But it won't come to that. I really think this whole thing is just SI being paranoid."

"I spent two years with SI - they have _reasons_ for being paranoid."

"Okay, it's four days of serious vigilance," Chris conceded. "But I know you can manage it, and hey, on the trip back..."

"She's a _cadet_ ," Giotto snapped. "And a damned annoying one at that."

"That's the spirit," Chris chuckled.

"I _have_ mentioned that I'm going to kill you, right?"

"Any chance of a reprieve if I arrange for a week on Risa when you get back?"

Giotto waited, letting him listen to dead air.

"How about if I pick up your bar tab for the week?"

"That _might_ buy a measure of clemency," Sam agreed slowly. "But only because that tab's going to require a loan against your earnings for the foreseeable future."

.

* * *

.

Gaila woke, but not because Giotto had woken her. She checked the chronometer - 8 hours since she'd gone to sleep. She'd waited an extra 15 minutes to wake the Commander, but mostly because she'd been watching him from the doorway, debating if that warning about waking violently was a ruse to keep her from touching him while his defenses were down (and before she'd decided, he'd opened his eyes and informed her that she was late).

Close to a day stuck on this shuttle together and he'd been nothing but distant and formal, which was _not_ normal male behavior, especially with her pheromones coming back. He was only a few years older than Captain Pike – nowhere near old enough to be disinterested and in her experience humans rarely let age hamper their libido (she'd had 90-year-olds make suggestions that would've made an Eroticon pleasure drone blush). Letting her oversleep was just another avoidance tactic. Gaila threw her blankets off in a huff and stalked to the front cabin. And stopped.

The scent hit her first. Humans didn't even realize when they gave off their own pheromones (which was pretty unfair considering how worried they were about hers). Giotto was dressed in a loose fitting black outfit, running through a sequence of movements that made her think of a war dance - smooth motions with sudden punctuations of power as though he was fighting a series of invisible attackers. He must have been at it for a while because he was so covered with sweat that the loose clothing was clinging in a way that did nothing whatsoever to hide the muscles beneath. And that was really unfair, because if he'd wanted a work out...

Giotto turned, poised to throw a kick, caught sight of her and nearly lost his balance. He quickly righted himself and turned away. "Put some clothes on Cadet."

Ha! For just a second there he'd reacted like a normal man. Gaila smirked. "I always sleep in the nude. When I realized you hadn't woken me, I was _so_ worried that I rushed right out in case you needed help." She ran her hands along his shoulders as she circled to face him. "Do you?" she traced a finger along the little valley between pectorals and raised her eyebrows playfully, "Need help?"

He took a step back, eyes fixed to a spot somewhere past her left ear. " _Not_ at the moment."

A challenge. Usually men chased her (or couldn't believe their luck if she came on to them), but it was fun being the pursuer. She grinned. "To paraphrase a human line, Commander, your lips say no, but your scent says yes."

"My 'scent' is not making the decisions here," he stated firmly. "And neither is yours."

"Is that the problem? You don't _like_ not being in control?" she smiled, moving closer. "I can work with that. Hold the pheromones back a bit. You could even tie me up -"

The Commander suddenly looked upward and laughed.

Okay, _now_ she was insulted. "What?"

"Forgive me, Cadet." When he looked down there was amusement in his eyes. "I've just always found it funny when people assume that particular kink for Security."

Unbelievable! Beautiful, naked Orion standing right in front of him. Most men wouldn't be able to say yes fast enough no matter what she'd suggested. "What's going on, Commander?"

He pursed his lips slightly. "Until you interrupted me, I was practicing a series of fighting forms. Now I'm going to take a shower," he held a hand up before she could say anything, "by myself."

"That's not what I meant."

"There are lines I won't cross, Cadet, and they're not open to discussion." He started to head toward the shower. "We need to eat and I'd like a briefing on your home region before we arrive. I'd appreciate it if you were clothed for that."

Gaila stared in disbelief. "You are the strangest human I've ever met."

Giotto turned at the door to the shower. "Thank you."

Well, at least she'd finally gotten him to smile.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _AN: I know, it's cruel to torture Sam like this. And maybe Gaila too, but she'll get over it._
> 
>  _SI = Starfleet Intelligence (yes, the joke about any form of military intelligence being a contradiction in terms has survived into the 23rd century)_
> 
>  _Please r &r_


End file.
